It has been discovered that certain diamond films with nanocrystalline diamond grains and with an inter-grain material consisting of a mixture of sp2 and sp3 structures are poor electron emitters, or do not emit electrons at all, after processing of the structure containing the diamond film with standard microelectronics processes, such as patterning, etching, and photolithography. Prior art techniques for utilizing diamond films as electron emitters within lamps or flat panel displays require such microelectronics processes in order to achieve the desired pixel structure for the lamp or a display. As a result, what is needed in the art is a structure and a method for manufacturing such a structure that does not require the application of such microelectronics processes on the diamond films.